Fingerprinting to DTC

A lot has gone on this month.  On April 16th I got our I-797 fingerprint appointment letter in the mail.  The date of the appointment was on May 4th.  When we adopted Max and went through this process we walked in earlier than our appointed date and all was fine.  Many agencies take early walk in's and because they had before we assumed this office did as well.  On April 18th Kim took the day off of school and Dave off of work and we drove the distance to Michigan City about 1 hour  (Kim is 18 so she had to be fingerprinted as well).  When we arrived and handed the receptionist our paperwork he informed me that we were a couple weeks early.  I explained very politely that we thought they took early walk in's.  He then told me that I would not walk into my Dr. without an appointment and we could not do it there.  I told him we had done it before and it was no problem at all.  He said they just must have done it as a favor.  I asked nicely if they could do us another favor that my daughter took off school and my husband work and we had to travel a ways to get to the office.  Might I add that we were the only ones in the office.  He then called over another worker and asked what she thought.  This women said she would take us just because they were not busy. YEA!!  We were in and out in 10 minutes.  I was very grateful and appreciative that they took us, but also a little upset that they were about to turn us away when the office was empty.  I did also tell him we were going through an adoption and we were trying to hurry things along if we possibly could.  He said" you don't know how many times I hear that one mam".  Ok just writing about it I am getting hot.  I AM grateful and I do know many have been turned away.  Well that was on Wednesday and by the following Monday I received the approval in the mail!!!  On Tuesday a friend of mine and I went downtown on the train to the Secretary of State and the Chinese Consulate to have our documents sealed.  I sent the documents to CCAI next day mail. All went well and had a fun time and did plenty of walking on a beautiful day.  Thanks Dee!

On that Friday the 27th I got an e-mail saying we are DTC that is short for dossier to China.  We now wait for our LID (log in date) should be a couple weeks.  It seems to be taking longer these days.  Use to have that in just a few days.  When we get our LID we then wait for our LOA (letter of acceptance)  When we get that that mean China has approved us to adopt Pan ZiXun (Cody).  The LOA has been taking anywhere from 40 days to 90 on average some a little earlier (not many) and some over 100.  No rhyme or reason to amount of days one waits.


Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I800a Sent

On April 2nd our I800a was sent off. I now wait for a letter giving us a fingerprint apt.. Dave, Kim, and I will need to go. When we get the apt. date we can really just go in early to the office to be fingerprinted. You can shave off a little time on the process by doing this. After you are fingerprinted you wait again for your approval. When we get the approval I will make another trip downtown to the Secretary of States office and the Chinese Consulate to have the document certified and authenticated. On my first trip downtown 2 of the documents were rejected by the Secretary of State because the notary did not sign with her middle initial. They were our police clearance reports so I had to have those redone.

I know the next few months are gonna fly by. Kim will be graduating high school on May 18th!
She is planning on attending Olivet Nazarene University and majoring in Elementary Education. She is going to England and Ireland in July for her Senior class trip. Summer is always a busy and fun time. Max is excited about going camping. In a couple of weeks his friend TJ and his family will pass through on there way to Indiana to visit. TJ was adopted the same time as Max and he and TJ were neighbors in their foster homes. It will be fun to see the two interact. The last time we saw them it was just a few months after we were home and the boys spoke limited English to each other but no Chinese.

FOLLOW US TO CHINA

Yes, it’s true we are going back to China to add another family member. I am sure some of you are wondering how this all came about. I will do my best to tell you our story. Adoption was something that had always seemed like it was a good idea to Dave and I. We have had family members who have adopted infants and really thought that was so great. To be honest I really didn’t think to much about adopting older kids. When Dave’s aunt and uncle adopted two older boys we began to see how fast and perfectly they fit into their family. We truly believe this has been Gods plan from the beginning for our family. We believe he has placed the desire of adoption in our hearts and allowed it to grow over time. In November of 2009 we began the journey to adopt from China. After lots of paperwork and waiting we were able to bring home Max in December of 2010. If you have not seen his blog its angiemaue.blogspot.com
The past 14 months with Max has gone so fast. We have definitely had our challenges along with many rewards as parents. I can honestly say that before this experience I really did wonder how we could ever love an older adopted child like we do our bio kids but you really do. We spent almost a year preparing for Max, looking at his picture thinking about what he was gonna be like what things he was gonna enjoy doing. (Never thought he would love video games so much). God really does soften and prepare your heart. Just as with Max we are now preparing to bring Cody home.
Cody is a 10 year old boy with a great smile. We are told he is a very sweet boy. He is in an orphanage in Guangzhou China in the Panyu orphanage. It’s a very small orphanage in a little more well off area of China. Cody has been in the orphanage since he has been 4 years old. We were able to send him a package with a few toys some candy to share and a couple of disposable cameras. We are hoping the cameras come back with him and he will have pictures of his friends. Cody is said to know a few English words and can recite many Chinese poems. I am planning on entering him in the 4th grade.
We are not to far into the process. We do have our home study completed and it is under review by our agency. After review and approval from our agency it then goes to DCFS in Springfield to be reviewed. I think IL is the only state that needs to be reviewed by DCFS. After that approval we send in our I800a form. A few more steps then it will finally go to China. After we have a LID (log in date). They say it’s about another 3 to 4 months. We are all very excited for these next steps.